Text - Colossians 1:15-17 He is the image ofthe invisible God,the firstborn of all creation.For byhim all things were created,in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whetherthrones ordominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.Andhe is before all things, and in him all thingshold together.
Prayer Requests Channing Preaching National Revival – Harvesters for the Fields Sarah Going to China Olivia Kissinger in the Hospital Tracy's Thumb Daniel's Friend's Family Missy and Randy Health/Jobs
Text – Psalm 94
I prayed long and hard about this topic, not knowing if I should teach it, and I actually wrote a whole other lesson plan…but then on Saturday Dave asked if I could teach the High Schoolers too, and that was an undeniable answer to my prayer, because the passage we’re on in First Thessalonians would make very little sense to you without reading at least the rest of chapter 5. We’re going to be talking about a different kind of prayer today, but I encourage you to keep track of prayers you pray, because I believe you’ll be amazed at how many of them are answered. There is something important going on in the battle for America, and one that we have to look at motives and the Bible to find the truth about what is happening. It doesn't really have anything to do with 1 Thessalonians...
1 Timothy 6:20 O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called "knowledge"…
The guy in the White House, Barack Obama, lifted a ban on funding Stem-Cell Research in Embryonic Stem-Cells this week. I want you guys to know what this means and why it is so stupid for the government to be doing this and that it isn’t really a matter of science, but them proving how much they hate the Living God.
There are four kinds of stem-cells that we’ve discovered so far. Three of these are very good and there never has been a ban on them, one of these is sinister and was banned because it kills a person.
So first, what’s a stem-cell? It’s sort of the construction worker of your body. Are any of your dads construction workers? My dad is, and since he is, I know there are two kinds of construction worker. There is the kind that builds things from scratch, and there is the kind that fixes things after they are built. My dad has done both jobs, and so can all stem-cells do both jobs, but they have specialties.
A stem-cell can replace pretty much any cell in your body, say a nerve gets damaged, a new stem-cell comes in and fixes that nerve. The same stem-cell can replace a muscle cell, or a skin cell, or a liver cell, they are able to do all sorts of jobs, but once it has decided what it is going to be, that is what it is going to be.
Stem-Cells Amniotic – Taken from the placenta after a baby is born, nobody dies Umbilical – Taken from the umbilical cord after a baby is born, nobody dies Marrow / Adult – Taken from a person’s very own bone marrow, nobody dies Embryonic – Taken from a baby before it is born, the baby dies
Amniotic and Umbilical stem-cells have shown some promise, healing some basic ailments, but the Adult cell, which is the common name for this type, has shown the most promise. These three types are the fixers.
Embryonic stem-cells have never healed anybody, and in tests in lab-rats they cause cancer instead of healing. These are the builders and they have no interest in fixing things, theirs is to make human beings, not fix problems in human beings.
Yet Barack Obama and other God-haters love the embryonic stem-cell and this is where they want to put all of their money. It is foolishness beyond foolishness. Michael J. Fox wants money to be put into this hopefully so he can be healed of his Parkinson’s Disease, yet he’s going exactly the wrong direction and will suffer the consequences.
Proverbs 8:35-36 For whoever finds [wisdom] finds life and obtains favor from the LORD, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death.
In conclusion, Adult stem-cells are awesome, nobody has to die, they are an incredible gift from God. If we put more money into this research, we will see diabetes go away, paraplegics and quadriplegics walk again, and even many forms of cancer healed. Embryonic stem-cells are stupid, they have no potential, and it is the murder of a baby, and God will judge those who are so happy to destroy human life.
Questions?
In First Thessalonians there is a verse talking to the church at Thessalonica, who has been persecuted like crazy, and Paul tells them this:
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Paul tells this church straight out that the persecution they are going through is God’s will for them. You can’t surprise God, he knew that Barack Obama was going to end up in the White House and within two months was going to sign bills that encouraged the killing of babies. The last time the High School was in here we looked at a verse in Isaiah 57 about Israel killing their babies, lets look at another one in 2 Chronicles 33, everybody turn, please.
A little history, Israel and Judah had some very wicked kings, Saul, Hezekiah, Amon, to name a few, but nobody could outsin Manasseh, lets read what he did:
2 Chronicles 33:1-6 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, following the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had demolished; he also erected altars to the Baals and made Asherah poles. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. He built altars in the temple of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, "My Name will remain in Jerusalem forever." In both courts of the temple of the LORD, he built altars to all the starry hosts. He sacrificed his sons in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, practiced sorcery, divination and witchcraft, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger.
He sacrificed his sons in the fire. Whenever things get really bad in the Old Testament, you can usually find babies getting killed. But we know from First Thessalonians, as well as many, many other places, that God is in control. Lets look at two real quick,
Lamentations 3:37-39 Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come? Why should any living man complain when punished for his sins?
Job 1:12 The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger." Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
And my favorite,
Amos 3:6-7 When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it? Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.
There are so many more we could look at, Romans 1, John 3:27, the whole book of Revelation…but do you get the point? It is God’s will that what is happening is happening, and therefore we better be paying attention to the lesson he is teaching us.
God created the world for four major purposes: First is the creativity and power of God; he created an infinitely big universe where no star, no human being, no snowflake is exactly the same as another. Second is to show us how bad sin is, that it has led to the death of everything, that it causes unbelievable suffering, and that it is contagious. Third is to show us that good can only come from God, and apart from God, not even the angel Lucifer can put together a working planet, having been labeled the ruler of this world. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to find out that Lucifer is not purposefully evil but is trying his hardest to make earth a godless utopia. Fourth is to put these three together; it shows how amazingly good and genius God is, that he is capable of saving us from sin but only by willingly going to the cross and taking our punishment, then showing his power by defeating death and bestowing his goodness on us.
I want to focus on the second, that God is demonstrating to us how bad sin is and why he hates it. I always have to share Psalm 11:5 when talking about this,
Psalm 11:5 The LORD tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.
Just as it is foolish for me to hate the bullet but love the assassin, it is foolish for God to hate the sin but love the sinner. He has an abiding hatred towards his enemies, but a lovingkindness that he sent his Son to absorb the wrath they deserved, so if they’ll repent and believe the Gospel, they will be saved. It is our duty as Christians to hate sinners and enemies of God, but Romans 12 is very clear that we are to leave all vengeance up to God. That leads into where I’ve been driving: imprecations.
What is an imprecation? It is a prayer asking God to pour out his vengeance on someone. 90 of the 150 Psalms contain imprecations, and that is certainly not the only place they are found. Peter Hammond, a missionary to South Africa, kept tract of imprecatory prayers that were being prayed against evil leaders, and many, many of them died. I’ve included a link on the website if you’d like to do a follow-up: http://www.frontline.org.za/articles/praying%20for%20justice.htm
You guys know I love history, so lets look into the past. In the mid-1500’s John Knox began his ministry as a Catholic priest in Catholic Scotland, but then his friend George Wiseheart, and Englishman and Protestant, was sent from King Henry to Mary, Queen of Scots to arrange a marriage between Anglican England and Catholic Scotland. Wiseheart was burned at the stake by the Catholic Church just for proposing that Catholic Mary would marry a non-Catholic. Reform was sweeping Europe and somehow or another John Knox got saved, the details are fuzzy, but it sounds like Knox was saved listening to Wiseheart open-air preach. Anyway it happened went to visit with John Calvin in Geneva. While here he became a radical reformer and headed back for Scotland, his most famous quote is, “Give me Scotland, else I die!”
He stood against Mary, Queen of Scots, admonishing her to her face, and repeatedly bringing her to tears. She said, “I fear the imprecations of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe.”
Her consort, Henry, banned Knox from preaching in his presence, but that didn’t stop Knox from preaching. He would preach to his congregation, then he would go outside and preach to anybody and everybody that would listen. During this time he continued to try to convert Mary and Henry, as well as praying against their efforts to suppress the Reformation. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Scottish Christians would die by their decree. Knox would pray Psalms against Mary, and apparently Henry went so far as throwing at least part of her Bible into the fire, this was at a time when Bibles cost in excess of $50,000 in todays money.
Knox confronted Henry and said, “Have you, for the pleasure of that dainty dame, cast the psalm-book into the fire? The Lord shall strike both head and tail.” Mary and Henry would both die painful deaths.
So, I want to look at a prayer the Psalmist wrote against some very wicked people. We don’t know for sure who wrote this Psalm, I believe fairly strongly that it was David, but ultimately who is the Author? God.
Psalm 94:1-3,20-23 O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongs—O God, to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth! Rise up, O Judge of the earth; Render punishment to the proud. LORD, how long will the wicked, How long will the wicked triumph?...Can wicked rulers be allied with you, those who frame injustice by law? They band together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death. But the LORD has become my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge. He will bring back on them their iniquity and wipe them out for their wickedness; the LORD our God will wipe them out.
We are fully and totally authorized to pray imprecations against enemies of righteousness. We should be asking God to either grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, or for him to crush them out of existence so that sin can no longer abound. In this we will be conformed closer and closer to an image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is a GREAT verse to commit to memory:
Hebrews 1:8-9 But of the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions."
And what is the fruit of Knox’s prayers? After Mary and Henry fled Scotland, later to be executed in England, Scotland saw a massive return to the Living God. Knox birthed the Presbyterian Church and greatly furthered the Reformation. Mary, Queen of Scots would have a son, his named was James VI of Scotland. Does anyone know his other name? James I of Great Britain, he was the first legitimate king of the whole of Britain, and he was a great friend of John Knox, thoroughly protestant.
What is his crowning achievement? In 1604 he realized that there were a lot of translations of the Bible and none of them were really good in English. He commissioned the Authorized Version of the Bible, otherwise known as the King James Version, or as Dave calls it, the King Jimmy Bible. This was the Bible of choice for over 300 years, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, John Wesley, and Charles Spurgeon would preach out of this Bible, to name a few.
It is still a really good Bible, but since it was written four-hundred years ago it’s not really in our language anymore, which is why we have the ESV Bible, the NIV, the NASB, the HCSB, and the NKJV which are all good Bibles.
So, to switch gears just slightly. Sarah is going to China. In China they have a similar problem, their Bible was translated in 1919 and it’s not really in the language they speak anymore. In 2007 a brand new translation was completed at great expense and is supposedly a very good Bible, but it is not yet legal to sell this Bible in China. Sarah, I don’t have very many details, but I implore you to take at least one new Bible into China with you and leave it, if not a few. I have no idea what the laws are, but I know you’re allowed a personal Bible.
There is a massive revival going on in China, there are more Christians in China than in America. They are working on a huge missionary outreach between China and Jerusalem. The greatest thing we can do is pray, both for them, and for God to raise up harvesters for our fields.
And finally, we thank God that while we were alienated from him, hostile in mind, doing wicked works, Christ has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present us holy and blameless and above reproach before him, and that we have now become ministers of his Gospel.
This Gospel is the only hope for our country, the only hope for our friends, the only hope for our babies, and the only hope for the world. So I implore you, know it, pray it, live it, and preach it.
We’re going to look at pretty much a list of commands today. The Bible is ingeniously written, using parables, poems, narratives (stories), principles and sermons to teach us many points without having to be a list. Such as, “Do do this, don’t do that, do not speed, do drive safely, do not cheat on your homework, do study hard for tests…” It would get tedious quickly, so the Bible gives us principles rather than instructions for the most part and that is how it is authoritative on every thing it talks about.
The Bible isn’t a science book, but when it talks about science, it is authoritative and correct. It isn’t a history book, but when it talks about history it is flawless. It isn’t just a list of morals, but the morals it describes are impeccable.
There are very, very few absolute truths.
For example, what color is the sky? The sky is clear, the refraction of light makes it look blue.
Can 2+2=5?
Is Alcohol always bad?
The only absolute in the universe is God. He is the Truth, his name is True. He is good, he is God, and we are not. Everything he created started out good, but through sin everything has the potential to be used for bad.
So instead of following a list of rules, God gives us guidelines to follow, he is equally concerned with our motives as with our actions.
For example, what is the 6th Commandment? Thou shalt not murder…yet what does Genesis 9:6 say?
Genesis 9:6 Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.
The motive changes whether it is sinful or good. So God doesn’t give us hard and fast rules to live by, but an example in his perfect sinless Son. Just like looking in a mirror to determine how you look, so is looking into the law the way we know if we are righteous or not.
And are we? No, we’ve broken all 10 of the 10 Commandments, in spirit if not in flesh, and were utterly lost, sold into sin, when Jesus Christ died for us and we have obtained salvation, being justified by faith. So how then should we live?
1 Thessalonians 5:8-15 Since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.
v. 8Since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.
What’s a breastplate? It is a piece of body armor that covers your upper torso, it protects all of your vital organs. The Bible uses various organs to describe our emotions, one of the reasons these are so named is where God has put our feelings, for example, has anybody ever had “butterflies in your stomach”? Did you really have butterflies, or did it just feel that way? But the feeling is in the stomach, right? The Bible describes this part of our body as our compassion. Similarly, our heart is the center of our emotions.
In protecting these two parts with the breastplate of faith and love, we are able to continue living for God, belonging to the day, remaining serious in our sanctification and ministry.
Say someone comes along and says, “We’ve proved evolution, absolutely, definitively, therefore the Bible is false.” Because the Bible cannot stand with evolution, they are entirely contradictory, either the Bible is right or evolution is right, because God is a God of completion, man caused death, and evolution is contradictory to the Bible in so many ways there is no way to reconcile the two. So, somebody comes along and says, “We’ve proved evolution, absolutely, definitively, therefore the Bible is false.” If you don’t have faith in God and the Bible, then you might think, “Oh no! I’m believing in vain, if I can’t trust the Bible, who can I trust?” But if you trust the Bible, then you can say, “Yeah, they’ve tried that before and it’s always been a bust, evolution is false, the Bible is true, God created the world complete a little over 6000 years ago.” Then you ask, “So what’s your proof?” And they’ll come back with something stupid like, “We’ve found a tooth in Africa that comes from our earliest ancestor and it dated to 9 Million years ago…” And you look at the tooth, and say, “Obviously this is your tooth, see, the one you’re missing, yep it’s this one.” Faith will make all the difference in how you are approached by things like that, always have the presupposition that the Bible is true, and it will always turn out to be correct, no matter how much someone thinks they’ve disproved it. Love will put your faith into action and you will become effective for every good thing that is in you for the sake of Christ.
Here's the Video we talked about
For our helmet we put on the hope of salvation. The helmet covers your head, the place of the intellect. God wants you to know that you are saved, the Bible is replete with tests for determining if you’re actually saved. If you’re not absolutely sure you’re going to Heaven, then you are probably not, so please see me after class or give me a call or shoot me an e-mail or ask your parents or Dave Snyder, because God wants you to know. The helmet of the hope of salvation will allow us to intellectually fight for the faith and defend ourselves and the church from attack.
Hebrews 13:6 We can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?"
Something Paul does a lot is mirror the beginning of his letters with the end, he does it here.
1 Thessalonians 1:2-3 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
The directions to come relate to how they are to be imitators of Christ, which was how Paul started the Epistle, but first he reminds us of the Gospel, which he had given also in chapter 1.
This is what we have faith in, what drives our lives, and where our hope comes from:
v. 9-11For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
The wrath that we stored up didn’t just go away, but Christ absorbed it on Calvary’s cross, therefore we are reconciled in his death and saved in his life. So now we are confident that whether we are alive or dead, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
The natural response to this is to tell people about it, and to encourage them and build them up to likewise tell more people about it. So then Paul jumps into some basic rules.
v. 12We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.
This one is pretty straight forward, love your pastors, and esteem them for their work towards eternity. Truly there is no more important job than that of shepherd of Christ’s flock, he is the Good Shepherd, who laid down his life for his sheep, we ought to be imitators of him.
1 Timothy 5:17 Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.
Respect them even in their admonishing of you, admonishing means correcting. In this, you should be reading your Bible so that you know if they are teaching sound doctrine, and so you can tell that they are being biblical.
Proverbs 27:5-6 Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
When we correct you, it’s not out of malice or to make you feel bad, it’s to lead you in the truth. Speaking of shepherds, a real literal shepherd carries a staff, one of the reasons for this is to poke the sheep to get them to go where they need to go. Sheep are stupid, as the shepherd is driving them to water or pasture, they will sometimes get on pretty worn trails, where other sheep have been, and those sheep have to use the bathroom.
A sheep gets thirsty, sees liquid, and drinks it. It’s the shepherds job to hit it with his staff so it keeps going so that it gets to the good water. The same with your pastors, you might think you find happiness in varying things, like video games, or television, or in popularity, it’s their job to point you at Christ and say, “There is something infinitely better and it’s my job to get you there.” It’s not that they don’t like you, it’s that they love you that sometimes there is admonition and rebuke, if you realize that they have your best interest at heart then it will be easy to love them.
But remember there are wolves in sheep’s clothing, so constantly be testing what you hear against the truth of scripture. The worst thing that can happen to a congregation is when the wolf puts on shepherds clothing.
Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
Prayer Requests The Roberts' Dog to be Found School Starting Back Up 8:30am Service Next Week Read through the Bible in a Year Pastor Aaron Preaching Those that heard the Gospel over Christmas and New Years, including YEC
Text – 1 Thessalonians 3:6-4:1
First Thessalonians 3 has two major lessons, the first we learned about last class, the danger of false conversion and how happy Paul was to hear that Thessalonica was standing firm in their faith, and the second thing that we can learn in this lesson is the bond within the church, the church which Paul said of Acts 20:28 …the church of God, which Christ has bought with his own blood.
It’s one of the coolest things in Christianity, I think, that there is an instantaneous bond between believers that transcends ethnicity, culture, and socioeconomic barriers. At YEC I preached a short sermon in the open-air and the Pizza guy ended up being a believer and gave us two free pizzas.
When my friend Alex flew in from New Zealand, which was the first time I ever met him face to face, we instantly had a bond and had a great weekend preaching, and fellowshipping.
On the converse, and I don’t want to name names, there are those that call themselves Christians that you will feel an animosity towards and wonder why, but there was one of those at Summit and I couldn’t figure out why I didn’t like him, because I usually like everybody, and Christians should always have a spirit of love towards one another. It didn’t take very long when he fell into a very sinful situation and his doctrinal statements showed him to have no idea of justification, nor grace, nor the subsitutionary death of Jesus Christ on the cross. He ended up not being a Christian, but a false convert, and it set my mind at ease as to why there was discord between our souls. I continue to pray for him often in hopes that God grants him repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth.
Lets read this passage, and I want to try something a little different, this is my first expositional teaching and I don’t think I’ve been doing it right, and I want to apologize for that, that while I think these classes have been very enlightening, I think we could be learning more about the book of Thessalonians than we are, so after reading the passage straight through, I want to read individual verses and exposit on them. As we’re reading this, listen for the loving words that Paul is writing.
1 Thessalonians 3:6-4:1 But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you— for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?
Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.
Just a little background, where was this letter written from? Corinth. Why was Paul worried that they might not think kindly of him? They left pretty suddenly in the middle of the night. What do we know about Thessalonica so far? 1. They were famous for their conversion from paganism to Christianity. 2. They were great preachers known throughout Macedonia and Achaia. 3. They were greatly persecuted by their countrymen for their new faith, even to the point that all Jewish believers were killed or run out of town. What made their location so special? They were on the Egnatian Way, as well as being a major port to the Aegean Sea.
So, first verse, 6, Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you-
The good news that Timothy brought was first of all their faith, that it was strong and that they hadn’t been turned away from the truth. Paul had previously had a problem with the churches in Galatia abandoning the truth to follow after works-righteous Judaizers, so to have Thessalonica stand firm in the truth was extra good news for Paul.
Next in the line of good news is their love, since love is an excellent fruit of the Spirit pointing towards their genuine conversion. Does anyone have the fruit of the Spirit memorized?
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Love is a running theme for the church; it is how we will be known, according to Jesus Christ.
John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
This love isn’t just ushy-gushiness where you look at somebody with a sweet look and say…”I love you” and smile a goofy smile, this is the agape love, which we will talk about more next week, which is a sacrificial love in action love.
1 John 3:17-18 If anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
Then Paul talks about the church at Thessalonica remembering him and Silas kindly, and them longing to see them again, which Paul also longs to see them.
The brotherly love amongst Christians, which is Phileo love, which again, we’ll talk about next week more in-depth, transcends distance and time.
Verse 7, for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith.
The previous verse listed some very good signs that their faith was genuine, and so Paul, Silas, and Timothy were comforted, since it was some of the best news they’d had in a while, having been put in jail in Philippi, run out of Thessalonica, run out of Berea, and then harassed by the Jews in Corinth. They had had a rough run of it, but Paul said his greatest hardship was always his worry for his churches. We’ve already read this passage once in this class, and we’ll probably read it at least one more time, because Paul really got thumped during his ministry:
2 Corinthians 11:24-28 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
Listen to that last verse, Apart from everything else, there is the daily anxiety for the churches…Paul loved God most of all, but his next love was people.
Galatians 4:19 my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!
Remember to pray for your Youth Pastor and his wife, he is constantly attending to students who have not yet believed, who are just believing, and who have claimed to have believed but have no fruit to show their regeneration. Just as Paul was constantly in anxiety and anguish, so is Dave. Even still, there is nothing he would rather do than take care of the Lambs of his Master.
Verse 8, For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord.
It is a tremendous encouragement and relief when someone who you’ve been praying about for a long time gets saved. Paul was probably pretty run down from his ministry, and if another church went apostate like the one in Galatia, I think Paul would have died of depression. But since Thessalonica was standing fast in the Lord, he was rejuvenated.
I almost never cry, but recently someone ran into the guys from the Kirk Cameron Gang-witnessing encounter and found out that at least two of them have gotten saved, including the main guy, Mario. I had prayed for Mario probably 25 times, and when I learned he got saved, I cried like a baby.
Verse 9, 10, and 11, For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith? Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you…
Paul gets a little giddy at this point, wanting to see them again, wanting to do things for them, it all comes back to this Christian love we have is not in word, but in action. The neatest thing, I think, is where it says that Paul felt joy for their sake. This is selfless love, when you see a brother or sister doing well, and feel joy for it without feeling envy or jealousy for their success.
After these three verses, Paul turns to something more immediate. His future hope is to see them soon, but immediately this is what he does, he asks God
Verse 12, may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you,
Increase in love means to have more of it, to abound in love almost means the same thing, it is sort of a word to describe an increase in liquid, especially when it overflows. To abound in love is to put your love to action because you have so much that you can’t keep it to yourself. Paul wants this to happen so they love those within the church, but also so they love those outside of the church.
Verse 13 gives the ultimate goal, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
We’re going to talk most about the coming of the Lord Jesus in a few weeks, so we’ll skip this part for now, but when he does come, we will be established blameless in holiness based on Christ’s righteousness given to us.
Christ is infinitely holy, and so will we be like him when he comes, but what is the point of trying to be more and more holy during this life if we’ll never be perfectly holy until Christ comes, or even worse, that no-matter how holy or unholy we will be, we will be perfected when we die or when Christ returns. There are two reasons, one, the Bible likens the world we live in to a mire, a sort of nasty muddy swamp, and also to dog-vomit. Ewww…pretty gross, right? At work we have this sort of elevator thing you stand on to get into the bottom fuel tanks of the F-22, you push the button and it goes all slow so that it doesn’t crush you. It takes forever. That is sort of how our holiness goes, but eventually we’ll get out of the mire, going slowly, then we start to get a better elevation, and a better view, then people start to look to us to show them the way to salvation. It is slow and painful and we’ll never be perfect, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be going that way.
The second, and more important reason we should become more holy, is because the Bible says so.
1 John 3:3 everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
Hebrews 12:14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
And verse 4:1, Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.
This is an introduction to the rest of the letter, that Paul is going to instruct the church at Thessalonica how to be more and more godly, how to walk and please God, and how to do it more often and better.
So that’s the exposition, I also saw something else worth teaching in this, since we’re on this fellowship that I hope you can see between Paul, Silas, and Timothy with Thessalonica, even though they are almost 200 miles apart.
In this county we’ve tried to perpetuate the rumor that we are capitalists…we’re not, capitalism doesn’t work. Neither does communism, we’re about in the middle, probably a little closer to capitalism than to communism. Communism, in a perfect society, would be the preferred government, but since people are sinful and strive against each other and God, it doesn’t work. I want to show you an event in the church that shows that.
Acts 4:32-5:11 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God." When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter said to her, "Tell me whether you sold the land for so much." And she said, "Yes, for so much." But Peter said to her, "How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out." Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.
Ultimately they lied to be thought better of in the church, there was no command to give all, so when they said they gave all but kept some, they weren’t breaking any rules, but they were lying, not to men, but to God. I don’t know why exactly they did it, but my guess is to be thought better of in the church, maybe think they were getting a higher portion in Heaven.
I really like Psalm 84 and how it puts how we should approach the church and Heaven.
Psalm 84:10 For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
And finally, this love should keep us together, but just in case we need a command to say so,
Hebrews 10:24-25 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Follow-up Concerning a question I had on the Trinity this week, I wanted to share this. The Trinity is dificult to understand, but not impossible. The Athanasian Creed gives an excellent defintion. Before reading this, where it says "Catholic", that should be read in the original Greek and Latin, which katholik and catholicam means "Universal" and is talking about the Bride of Christ; it is NOT talking about the apostate Roman Catholic Church.
Prayer Requests Black Friday Preaching Results Students Who are Sick Pastor Aaron Preaching
Isaiah 6 As a follow-up from Disciple Now this class period will be devoted largely to Isaiah 6, but also to tie it back into 1 Thessalonians, we'll spend some time on Isaiah 6:13, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled." The holy seed is its stump.
There were some things that we skipped over during D-Now that I really think we should have spent time on. Overall I really enjoyed the weekend, I hope you did too.
Isaiah 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.
Isaiah was probably in the Temple when he had this vision. King Uzziah, the king who had brought Israel to a high level of prosperity and security had died and Israel was mourning his death. Isaiah looked and saw that God was high and lifted up, meaning God was higher than Uzziah, and that God was still seated on the throne. God was and is still in charge.
God's robe symbolizes a lot of God's attributes; righteousness, majesty, splendor, and that the train of his robe filled the whole temple, which was a HUGE building, shows that he has an overabundance of all of it.
Psalm 93:1 The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed; he has put on strength as his belt.
Compare a well known story of the prodigal son, who went and lost everything and was covered in filth and ran home, what was the first thing his father did after forgiving him?
Luke 15:21-22 And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.
God's righteousness is often referred to as a Robe and one that he clothes others in, compare a few others.
Isaiah 61:10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
2 Chronicles 6:41 Let your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let your saints rejoice in your goodness.
Who is a priest? All Christians, it is a ministerial title for those who are ministers of the Most High God. Who is a saint? Anyone who has been saved and is being sanctified. Who is our Great High Priest? Jesus Christ.
Two of my favorite verses are Job 29:14 and Romans 13:14, they say, "I put on righteousness, and it clothed me, and my judgment was as a robe and a crown." In other words, the judgment is as the King. How do you put on righteousness? Paul said, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, make no provision for the flesh, to satisfy its desires."
When Isaiah saw God's robe filling the Temple, it was symbolic of God's righteousness covering his people.
Isaiah 6:2-3 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!"
Compare this picture to Revelation 4:8, And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!" The eyes that the angels are filled with are likely symbolic of their extensive wisdom, since they have eyes all around and within, they are able to see the grandeur of God as well as their own createdness. With their extensive wisdom, look at what they do, they worship God forever.
They are covering their faces and their feet. When covering their faces, I think they are specifically covering their eyes, acknowledging the Splendor of God. I think when covering their feet they are acknowledging their created-nature.
And which God are they calling to? They aren't just proclaiming any God, they give language to specify the God they are talking about, the Lord of hosts, the God of all the earth, the one who was before all things, is living, and is coming back to earth. They are talking about the One True God, the Triune God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Isaiah 6:4-5 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"
Isaiah did the right thing when he encountered God, he recognized his sinfulness and God's holiness. Let's compare some other verses:
Hebrews 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Isaiah 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the godless: "Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?" Luke 12:5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!
The reason that sinners are afraid of God is because he is big, and holy, and offended, and righteousness, and the just judge who by no means will clear the guilty. All of these things are great things, but if they are pointed at you then they are terrifying. Consider a police officer, who keeps the peace and punishes bad guys. If you're not a criminal, then he is on your side, but if you are a criminal, he is your enemy.
Why was Isaiah so afraid? His one admission was a big one, "I am a man of unclean lips...", James really expounds on this idea well,
James 3:4-12 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
This is the James who usually says things with precise and concise statements, and yet he goes on and on about the tongue both wrecking our soul and also a bad tongue proving the lostness of our soul. Jesus said that out of the mouth the heart professes. By Isaiah admitting to having unclean lips, he was proclaiming his absolute depravity.
The same thing with us, when we blaspheme God's name or swear or gossip, we're showing our sinfulness. Woe to Isaiah? Woe to us!
Isaiah 6:6-7 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for."
Notice who did it...it wasn't Isaiah, it was the angel. There is nothing we can do to clean ourselves up, we need a working of God to regenerate and sanctify our souls. This coal touching Isaiah's lips didn't save him, since everyone who has ever been saved is saved by Christ's payment, but it did cause the cleansing of Isaiah's soul. His faith in God that God would take care of him led to his salvation and his sins were paid for 700 years down the road on the cross of Christ.
Notice also that this coal was probably painful. A lot of times the sanctification process is painful, nobody promised it to be easy.
Isaiah 6:8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."
The outward indication of Isaiah's inward cleansing was his willingness to minister for God. Unfortunately, Israel was pretty far gone by this time, and the message Isaiah was given to preach wasn't one of redemption, but of punishment.
Isaiah 6:9-13 And he said, "Go, and say to this people: "'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.' Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears,and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed." Then I said, "How long, O Lord?" And he said: "Until cities lie waste without inhabitant,and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, and the LORD removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again,like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled." The holy seed is its stump.
Israel had a thumping in store for them, first by Assyria, then by Babylon, and ultimately by Rome. Isaiah's message was just to deliver this message.
A few years later Jeremiah would preach a similar message as Babylon was invading Israel. Jeremiah preached 50-some years without a single recorded convert, and at one point he got pretty angry at God for that, here is what he said,
Jeremiah 20:7-11 O LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me.8For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, "Violence and destruction!" For the word of the LORD has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. If I say, "I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name, "there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side!" Denounce him! Let us denounce him!" say all my close friends, watching for my fall." Perhaps he will be deceived; then we can overcome him and take our revenge on him." But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.
When you're preaching, just like Isaiah and Jeremiah, you are not guaranteed converts, but we're preaching for the glory of God, not the conversion of men. It is a theme of Israel not responding to her prophets, and they got thumped by Assyria, and God saved them, then by Babylon, and God saved them, but finally by Rome, and God didn't save them.
So to get back to 1 Thessalonians 2:16 God's wrath has come upon the Jews at last.
There was a promise of salvation to Israel, so why weren't they saved?
Romans 9:4-8 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.
I don't fully understand why Israel was cut-off, but they were certainly given ample opportunity to repent and be saved. The Israel that was promised salvation was spiritual Israel, not national Israel. This has worked out very well for the Gentiles.
Romans 11:11-12 So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!
There is a little circle, that Israel was cut-off so that the Gentiles could be saved, and the Gentiles were saved to make Israel jealous so they would repent and be saved. Now how did God do it?
Grafting was normal in Palestine/Israel. Wild olive shoots grow up everywhere. The major difference between an olive tree and an olive shoot is if someone has taken the time to prune the shoot to grow into a fruit-producing tree. An olive shoot will never produce fruit on its own though.
Romans 11:17-24 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, "Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in." That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.
A dying branch on an olive tree can kill the whole tree, so it is absolutely necessary for the vine-dresser, also called a husbandman, to cut off dying branches. Once the branch is cut off, an olive shoot can be stuck to the tree and the tree will adopt the while shoot and then the shoot will produce fruit.
Who is the vine in all of this? Jesus.
Who is the vine dresser? God the Father.
John 15:1-6 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned."
The branches have to abide in the vine, because the vine is the source of all their nourishment and life. A branch apart from the vine is no good for anything other than to be burned in the fire.
So, Gentiles have been saved in place of the branches of Israel. Consider that we're all in prison, waiting for our ransom to be paid. The jailer comes in and says, "You're free to go, your $100 million ransom has been paid by Jesus Christ." Half of us get up and leave, the other half say, "That's not who we were waiting for, we'll wait for the next $100 million payment by someone other than Jesus Christ." There isn't going to be another payment, they are lost.
There are three kinds of Jewish person: 1. Messianic - Trust that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. The Old Testament prophets would fit in here. I'm certain Isaiah would rather worship God at Summit than at a Jewish Synagogue of today. 2. Orthodox - Claim to follow the Old Testament. They are waiting for the coming Messiah, they reject that it was Jesus. Most are expecting Elijah. 3. Talmudic - This is the majority of Jews today. They've abandoned the Old Testament and are following oral tradition. Of this type of Jew Jesus Christ was pretty harsh:
Revelation 2:9 I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
Ultimately salvation is only through Jesus Christ. The Jews that have rejected him are not the Jews of promise and will not be saved. One sign of the end of the age is that many Jews will come to salvation in Jesus Christ, the Bible says they won't even have to tell each other that Jesus is the Messiah, they will just know. (Hebrews 8 and Romans 11)
One of my friends sometimes calls the church of Jesus Christ, "Israel." We don't have the land promises and such, but we have been grafted into the promise of salvation given to Israel. It's not a term I'd use for a congregation, since it takes too long to explain...I think it's taken three class periods to get to this point...but it isn't wrong to refer to the church today as Israel.
Follow Up Question:
Why is God Jealous? I was asked last weekend why God is a jealous God, and I thought it was something that I should relay to this class.
Imagine I came to class and nobody was here, I sat down to wait, and Dave came by, and I asked, "Dave, where's my class?" and he said, "Oh, I had a new guy who wanted to teach, but I didn't have any students to give him, so I gave your class the option of where they wanted to go, and he offered them food, so I guess they went with him." So I thought...hmmm...well, ok, so I sat down and read my Bible and prayed some, but got bored and decided to go see what he was teaching.
I find the class, and he's got a Dr. Seuss book opened and I ask, "Dr. Seuss? Is there a theological implication to that?" and he answers, "No, I just like it, and I didn't have time to prepare a lesson." Hmmm...so I ask, "Well where's the food you promised?" and he says, "We already ate it," and points to an empty bag of M&M's.
At this point, beloved, I would be jealous. Not because he stole my class, but because of the quality of instruction you were getting. I know you all are well on your way to being great ministers of God, and his teaching you fluff would stifle your growth. My knowledge of your abilities and burgeoning wisdom would lead me to want you to keep growing, which is why I try to challenge you with deep lessons.
That is why God is a jealous God, he has worked hard and knows what is best for his people, and when they run off to infinitely lesser things he gets jealous. I hope that makes sense.
Prayer Requests 3on3 Basketball Impact Jessica's mom Michelle's surgery and recovery Christians in Mosul, Iraq Awtrey Middle School Message Channing's Ankle, Taylor's Head, Mitch's Nose
Text - 1 Thessalonians 2:1-6
Did anyone witness to anyone this week? Would you have been more apt to witness for $50 a person? How about $100? What if you got $100 everytime you witnessed to someone?
Lets read two passages,
Matthew 6:24 No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
What do you love more? Money, or God? You can't serve both. What is more important to you? Some money, or the glory of your God and the souls' of your friends?
1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
There have been four major depressions in the history of America. 1720, 1790, 1868, 1929, they were all caused by the love of money through either real-estate speculation or the stock-market. These are between 60-70 years apart, if you look at 70 years after 1939 when the last depression was, you seen 2009, you see a love of money, real-estate speculation, and everyone is in the stock-market. We're in for a bumpy ride over the next several years, but this is not a bad thing, because money drives people from God; so when they lose their money, we have the perfect opportunity to see them saved in Christ.
I don't want you to think I'm prophetic or anything, this is just how history works, there is a major fall from God, then salvation, the next generation forgets the major salvation, the next generation starts to stray, they seek after wordly possessions, the next generation elevates themselves to high standing, then crash again. It happened all through Israel's history, it's happened in the history of the United Kingdom, Russia, the United States, China; Solomon said, "There is nothing new under the sun."
Let's read our passage,
1 Thessalonians 2:1-6 For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed— God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ.
Remember, this letter is the first time that the Thessalonians had heard from Paul since he was kicked out of town in the middle of the night. Timothy had likely told them he was alright and that he sent his love, but they hadn't heard straight from him. He is writing to a thriving church and telling them that his coming was not in vain...it's almost silly if we didn't know how much pain and suffering Thessalonica had gone through since their conversion.
Paul was saying that the pain and suffering he had endured, that they had endured, was not on accident, but that it was for a purpose of spreading the Gospel.
Who knows what happened in Philippi? Philippi was the first place Paul took the Gospel in Europe, it's just down the road from Thessalonica. It is a major Roman colony, and while there Paul and his fellow preachers converted many people. They met a young woman who went around proclaiming their coming, saying, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation." She started to annoy Paul because she was being obnoxious and he cast a demon out of her and she lost her ability to perform witchcraft, which cost her owners a lot of money.
They got mad, compounded by how mad some of them must have been at their preaching, and they stripped them and beat them thoroughly and threw them in prison. The first night in prison, they were praying and singing, and it sounds like many of their fellow prisoners were converted, when there was an earthquake and they could have escaped. Instead of escaping, which would have led to the death of the jailer for losing them, they decided to stay and preach to him, and he was saved.
The next day, the Philippian magistrates kicked Paul and his friends out of Philippi, which is how they came to Thessalonica. Remember when they first came to town they converted Jews, Gentiles, and as the Bible puts it, "not a few of the leading women." They really shook things up in Thessalonica when they came to town, and they are showing in this chapter that they didn't come for money, or for prestige, or for girlfriends, but that they had been beaten and that it had cost them alot to preach the Gospel which led to the salvation of so many.
They were preaching not to make people happy, but to see them saved so that God would be glorified. While the conversion made their earthly life considerably worse, it made their eternal life infinitely better.
verse 5-6 For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed— God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ.
They could have gone in and said, "We're apostles, give us a dollar." Or Paul could have sought high esteem and said, "I want a big huge church in Thessalonica covered in gold, beautiful paintings, and illustrious stuff, and I want to be the Senior Pastor." Because they were evangelists, they didn't seek for people to glorify them, but they sought for people to glorify God, and in this it cost them much.
1 Corinthians 9:18-19 What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel. For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.
In this passage, Paul was pretty much preaching what he had already preached to Galatia,
Galatians 1:10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Prayer Requests 3 on 3 Basketball Atlanta Evangelism Outreach
Resumed from Last Week Isaiah 53:4-6 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
This passage was written 700 years before the birth of Christ, I hope you can see him in this Old Testament passage. Many Rabbis today won't read Isaiah 53, skipping from chapter 52 to 54. Their reasoning is that it sounds too much like Jesus for them to read, but their hardened hearts keep them from seeing that it actually is Jesus.
John 10:9-10 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
The implication of this verse is that if Christ came to give us life, and an abundance of it, then we must have had death before and not only so, but an overabundance of death. This is exactly what Ephesians 2:1 says, that we were dead in our sins and trespasses. Christ won't make your life peachy, you aren't promised money, possesssions, or popularity, you are actually promised trials and tribulations, but we know that if we are raised with Christ then we have eternal life, and once Christ purges the universe of sin, then we will have perpetual happiness and peace.
Reformation Day I had a very busy week with evangelism and school so didn't prepare a lesson for 1 Thessalonians 2. This lesson is about Reformation Day, which is October 31st. When most people are saying, "Happy Halloween," I say, "Happy Reformation Day!" The reason it is called this is because this was the day in 1517 that Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenburg. Today I want to share with you why that was important, and so you'll be ready to celebrate Reformation Day this year.
The Six Solas of the Reformation There are several Solas of the Reformation, some churches claim there were only two, others five, but I maintain that there are six. These weren't written down by Luther or Calvin or Zwingli, but these encompass beautifully what their philosophy based on the Bible taught them.
Sola Gratia - You are saved by grace alone. (Ephesians 2:5) Sola Fide - Your faith alone is your application for grace. (Romans 5:2) Solus Christus - We are redeemed by the work of Christ alone. (Galatians 1:3-5) Sola Scriptura - We know these things through scripture alone. (Hebrews 1:1-2) Soli Deo Gloria - These are all for the glory of God. (Galatians 1:3-5) Sola Sacerdos - The result is one priesthood of believers, we bring our sins before the throne of Grace and our Great High Priest Jesus Christ is our mediator with God. (1 Timothy 2:5) We all stand in equal standing. (2 Peter 1:1)
In conclusion, we are saved by grace through faith in Christ known by the Bible for the glory of God resulting in one church.
The Bible teaches these six things very clearly, but people always want to do something to go to Heaven. In the Fifth Century, an Emperor named Constantine realized that he had to do something about Christianity because it was hurting his empire by making people too moral. He had a vision that he would win a great victory under the symbol of Christianity, which at the time was the Chi-Rho symbol, which in English is X-R which is the first two letters of Christ. The problem was that his enemy, Maximillian, had the same vision, so this vision probably was not from God. I believe the devil did a great work to defeat the current church under its own symbol by paganizing it.
Constantine won, and legalized Christianity. It was the worst thing that ever happened to the world and the church. Instead of tearing down the pagan temples, Constantine just built churches next to them. He paid his soldiers the equivilent of $20 to convert to Christianity and effectively killed the church through false converts.
During the 1100 years that the Roman Catholic Church reigned, history has dubbed this the "Dark Ages", because there was not much of a Christian presence. The Donatists, Waldensians, and Lombards were a few real churches, but they were not active in evangelism. The Hussites were the last before Martin Luther, they get their name from the town they lived in, Hussinic, which means Goose Lake. Many of them were burnt at the stake because they were more evangelistic and against the Catholic Church. This is where we get the term, "Your goose is cooked."
One of the reasons the church faired so poorly was because they were deprived of the Bible. They spoke English, French, German, Italian, and the Bible was in Latin, so they couldn't understand it. You have to know that without the Bible, the church will die. There are few things I would die for, one of course is Christ, second is my brothers and sisters in Christ, including you guys, and third is the right to own and read a Bible. Within our lifetimes I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see them try to outlaw first purchasing Bibles, and then owning or giving Bibles.
In the 15th Century, Constantinople was sacked by the Muslims, and Greek and Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible flooded into Europe. I believe this was divine, in that Constantine killed the church, and then the city that bore his name fell and the church was revived.
Martin Luther started his life as a lawyer, but then became a Monk. He earned his doctorate by 23, and we see this a lot in the Reformation and amongst godly Christians. Education is not a mark of intelligence or ability, but people with a motivated character often end up with high educations.
Colossians 3:1-3,17 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
In school, it is not so important what you are learning, but that you are learning to the best of your abilities. Working on things you don't like is a great way to build character, for example, if you don't like math, then work extra hard to do well in it so that you discipline yourself to complete hard tasks. Long before I was a Christian, someone told me, Anything worth doing is worth doing well. and this advice has served me well. It similarly served Martin Luther well to do everything he did, well.
As a monk, Luther was exceedingly sensitive to his sins. He used to bore the priests that heard his confession by telling them what they thought were mundane and boring sins. They enjoyed hearing about people's sinfulness, but not Luther's list of sins. Luther recognized this and became annoyed with the church, then he heard a priest, when he was supposed to be "Horpus Corpus"ing the communion bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ say, "Bread thou is, and bread thou shalt remain." Luther was aghast that they would take their religious duties so flippantly, and he dove into the Bible.
He was reading through Romans and came to Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. He realized that faith came externally, that it didn't come from the heart, but that it came from the Word of God. He restarted Romans reading it with this hermeneutic, which is the way you read the Bible.
He got to verse 17, For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith." He said the "light broke over him" and he was saved, the external gift of faith from God resulted in his salvation. He thought he had found what other Catholics had but that he had been missing for so long. His conscience was cleansed, he realized that all of his sins were paid for on Calvary's cross and that he didn't need to, and couldn't, ever pay God for his sins, but that they were already paid for.
He wanted to reform the Catholic Church at first, which is the biblical model, telling someone they are against God first and trying to get them to change, and then if they won't change, then excommunication or other measures. A man named Tetzel came to Wittenburg, Luther's town, to solicit money for a new church in Rome, he did this by selling indulgences, which is a ticket to sin. This outraged Luther.
On October 31st, 1517, Martin Luther nailed a list of 95 grievances against the Catholic Church to the bulletin board, which was the door of the church, in hopes that they would reform. Within a matter of weeks this list had been published and sent all over Europe. Some of these were things like saying, "If the Pope had the authority to forgive sins, he ought to forgive them all out of the goodness of his heart instead of having people pay for them." He also wrote a lot about how sins were paid for in the blood of Christ and not through money.
The Roman Catholic Church didn't like that and summonsed Luther to Worms (Pronounced Vorms) and held a meeting, called a Diet, to see if he was a heretic. Luther went to this fully expecting to die. He was a great preacher though and God was on his side. They asked him, "Do you renounce the things you have written?" And he said that much of what he had written was in allignment with the RCC and so to renounce it would be to renounce good doctrine. They asked him about the things he had written against the RCC, and since the crowd was pretty small he asked to be given another day to think about it, but he was really hoping for a bigger crowd to preach to the next day. Someone asked him if he agreed with the Hussites and he had never heard about them.
He read all night about John of Hussinic, the leader of the Hussites, and the next day stated, "I am a Hussite." To a much larger crowd, gathered to see him executed, he then stated his most famous line, "Here I stand, I can do no other, God help me." You are always right if you are standing with the Bible, even in the early 1900's when science had claimed to have proved evolution and there was almost no evidence for creation, you would have been right to have stood on the Bible that God created the universe only a few thousand years ago. Now we know through evidence that the Bible is right, but the lack of evidence 100 years ago didn't make the Bible less right. Stand with the Bible and you'll never be wrong, no matter if an entire Roman Catholic Church stands against you, like it did with Luther.
Luther left Worms and undoubtedly would have been killed if King Frederick of Germany had not sided with him, having likely been converted, and he changed Luther's name to George, knighted him, and hid him in a castle called the "Kingdom of the Birds", which is so named because it was built on top of a mountain. Here Luther studied his Bible and translated it into German, he also wrote his famous song, "A Mighty Fortress is our God."
Once the Bible was translated, the Reformation was unstoppable.
Two last things, Luther married a nun named Katy. When the new Protestants were reading their Bibles, they realized they should be married, so they paired up nuns with monks and they got married without dating or anything. Luther was matched with Katy, who was a few years older than him, and he did the biblical thing, which was to love her because he loved her, not because of anything she did for him or because she was extra beautiful or anything, and by all accounts they had a wonderful marriage.
The final thing, you've probably heard that America is dying. That is incorrect, America is dead. But remember, we serve a God who rose from the grave and raises from the dead. When Luther started the Reformation, the entire world was dead spiritually, and God revived it. God can save the United States, if we preach, people will be saved, and so will the nation.
Witness to one person by Sunday, October 26th, and receive $5.
Prayer Requests Pastor Aaron and Denise Riverfest in Canton Fireproof the movie and those that will get saved Adam's Soccer Tournament Matthew's team to win some games More students in class
1 Thessalonians 1:2-3 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Prayer is the most important thing a Christian can do. I get carried away when talking about prayer because it is such an interesting and vital thing in the church. You have been granted the most incredible privilege ever conceived: an audience with Almighty God. And yet most Christians completely forsake this privilege, praying only on Sundays at church.
Leonard Ravenhill said something we should all remember, “If weak in prayer, we are weak everywhere.” Paul started the letter to Thessalonica with the most important weapon they have, prayer, and reminds them to pray and that they are prayed for.
Jesus prayed ALL THE TIME, if we’re seeking his example, then we should pray ALL THE TIME. Jesus Christ prayed all the way to his death on the cross, but not for himself, but for those doing the crucifying. He said, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”
James 5:16 The prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
The Bible a lot of times speaks of individuals in the masculine, like in this verse, “the prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” This doesn’t mean that the prayers of Hannah don’t avail much, the prayers of Jessica don’t avail much, the prayers of Da’Kayla don’t avail much; what the Bible means a lot of the time (not all of the time) when it says he or man is that it is the duty of each individual to do something, in this case it is to pray. The ESV Bible tried to capture this without going too far, in this case it says, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power…”
People through history have believed that the priest or the shaman or the sooth-sayer have more efficacious prayers and so have neglected their own duty to pray in order that they pay someone to pray for them. This is called, in part, sacerdotalism, which is the belief that certain religious people have a higher standing in the eyes of God. In the dark ages, there were priests specifically paid to pray a certain number of times a day for their town, people, and livestock. I read one story of a priest who was supposed to wake up at 4am every day in order to pray for the day to come before everyone else was awake. One day he slept in, and trying to be a “good man”, he confessed his failure, and he got thumped for his failure to wake and pray for the town.
The Catholic Church is notorious for their superstitious prayers, believing they are bribing God by being faithful to say ritualistic prayers so many times a day. Hail Mary’s and Our Father prayers are pagan practices adopted by the Roman Catholics and specifically prohibited by Christ. There is another problem; you have to be perfect in order for God to hear your prayers.
1 Peter 3:12 “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
God hears the prayers of the perfect, but turns a deaf ear to the unrighteous.
Romans 3:10 “None is righteous, no, not one;”
Uh-oh…does that mean that we’re praying in vain when we pray? If you’ve got to be perfect when you pray if you want God to hear you, what is standing in our way for God to hear us?
Sin, sin is always getting in the way, it ruins everything and I really want to instill a hatred of sin in you so that you will see your perfect sinless Saviour as someone exceedingly wonderful and special.
What is sin? 1 John 3:4 “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.”
Give me some examples.
Can we develop our own righteousness?
Isaiah 64:6 “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”
Paul Washer puts it this way, “The greatest, most commendable deeds of men are nothing but a few filthy rags before God.” A leper is a person whose nerves and skin is dying, they have open wounds, and the worst of them have an odor you wouldn’t believe. “One might clothe a leper in the finest, white silk to cover his sores, but immediately, the corruption of his flesh would bleed through the garment, leaving it as vile as the man it seeks to hide. So are the “good works” of men before God. They bear the corruption of the man who does them.”
How do we get righteousness?
Romans 3:20-22 “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”
Jesus Christ lived a righteous life and faced a sinners’ judgment so that we can live a sinner’s life and face a righteous judgment. On the cross Jesus Christ cried out, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” The reason is clear, he was made sin for us and God turns his face from the unrighteous. Our sin tore the Father from the Son, and through this incredible showing of love we can receive Christ’s righteousness through faith, and this faith, if from God, will immediately produce repentance; a hatred for sin and a love of God.
So now you have God’s righteousness, how do we pray?
Hebrews 4:16, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Remember from 1 Peter 2:9 that we are a royal priesthood. We have been given the privilege of prayer bought at an incredible price on the cross by Jesus Christ so that we can become the righteousness of God in him, and are allowed to approach the holiest of places, the throne of God. An unrighteous person who approached God would be incinerated, because God cannot tolerate sin in the same way the sun cannot tolerate an ice-cube. God’s holiness consumes all unrighteousness.
Prayer is for YOU, God already knows what you’re going to ask and if it aligns with his will, it is going to happen whether you ask or not.
Leonard Ravenhill said it beautifully, “We've said that prayer changes things. No! Prayer doesn't change things. Prayer changes people and people change things. We all want Gabriel to do the job. God says do it yourself - with My sufficiency and My strength.”
Types of prayer,
Petitioning – Asking for something for yourself Intercession – Praying for God to do something for someone Supplication – Asking God to do something through someone Thanksgiving/Praise – Thanking God for doing
Imprecation – Asking God to squish someone
So now, what are Paul, Silas, and Timothy praying for?
We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving for all of them, for their works that show their faith, their labors of love, and their steadfastness in the face of persecution. While intercession and supplication are not named, they are here, asking God to continue their steadfastness, and to continue using those at Thessalonica for his glory.
1 Corinthians 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
The word for constantly really means constantly, all the time; remember Paul, and especially Timothy, haven’t been out of Thessalonica for very long and they are praying, interceding and supplicating, for the continued ministry of this infant church. Whether they were praying daily or hourly or more often is unclear, but it is clear that their prayer was often.
1 Timothy 4:4-5 Everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
We give thanks for our food, but this is also a great time to pray for other things. I don’t get asked to bless a lot of meals, because I tend to go into full fledged prayer during the blessing. When you’re praying for your food is a great time to remember other people who you are praying for or said you’d pray for.
Also, sometimes it is beneficial just to mention someone’s name in prayer, maybe not even something specific, just say, “Lord, I bring the name of Sydney, Matthew, Hannah, and Jessica before your throne today that your will would be evident in their lives and that you use them for your purposes."
The key here is communication with God, he already knows what you’re going to ask for, and he knows better than you what you need. Besides us wording our prayers, they are intercepted by the Holy Spirit and sent on to the Father.
Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
Finally is the way that we end our prayers,
1 John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
We end prayers, “In Jesus Name”, but what we should be meaning and maybe saying is, “We ask these things hopefully in the will of God.” Jesus didn’t end a single prayer, “In the name of me, amen.” Or anything like it, so you shouldn’t feel confined to that sort of ending. However you end your prayer though should have a note of finality if you’re praying out-loud so people will know the prayer is over. Amen means truth, or sincerity, and is sort of like signing a letter, “Sincerely,”
In conclusion, praying with your non-Christian friends is a great way to preach at them; when you’re praying for an unbeliever, always bring their name before the Throne of Grace with the authority granted to you by Jesus Christ.
Whatever you pray for, remember the price that was paid so you can communicate with God, and be thankful for his willingness to listen, intercede, and act on your prayers, provided they align with his will.
